Snapshots

Today my marriage turns two and my baby turns -6 weeks! There's not a lot of outward celebration in the household - our budget doesn't really allow for it - but this provides me with a standpoint from which to view our progress since the wedding. There are a lot of things we yearn for, like our own home and a better job for my husband in the field he studied so hard to work in. For me, I yearn to become a more established writer, but progress is slow. However, I think we should take the time to look at what we have achieved and be thankful for what we have, because otherwise it is easy to lose sight of the good stuff.

A snapshot of my life today would show me living in a comfortable home in a beautiful mountain town, with the sun shining across the lake outside my door. It's summer and the temperature is about 18'C right now, and it will climb to about 24'C by the evening. I am (in case you didn't realise) 34 weeks pregnant with my first child. I'm not working - the Canadian company I worked for as an online editor was sold to another company in Pakistan, so I lost my job in early December - and my days are filled with attempts to get all the little things done that may prove impossible after the baby's birth. I also spend some time preparing myself physically and mentally for the birth by reading, doing yoga, walking and writing. Aside from this blog, I'm keeping a journal for the little guy to read when he is older, so that he will know how I felt about him. I appreciate having the time to do these things, despite the fact that working would have been more practically useful. My husband is at work and tonight when he gets home we will probably go for a swim in the lake, eat some dinner and watch a movie. Our life is quiet these days, but it's probably about time it became that way.

After all, turn the clock back one year...and here's us, living in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. We had just returned from a two-week shift working at a remote heli ski lodge in the middle of the Selkirk Mountains. The shift had encompassed Christmas and New Year and had been physically and emotionally draining. Physically, due to the 13-hour work day for 14 days in a row (and the heli-skiing, of course!), and emotionally because Christmas away from home is always difficult, but even more so when you have to spend it serving others and cleaning up! So we were back in town for a week and ready to party, which was not hard to do in Revelstoke. As you can glimpse outside the door, it had been snowing quite a bit since we left. Judging from our outfits, it was pretty cold out there, but we were venturing out to a Japanese restaurant in town for a bit of a date night. The next day, we would almost certainly have gone snowboarding.

Go back another year and it's the day of our wedding. We finished work at Christmas time and have been living at the in-laws to save money. Before we left our flat in Herne Bay, we sold all the furniture and packed everything we weren't taking with us to Canada in large plastic boxes which are stored in the garage. We leave for Canada in one month and we're very excited. Aside from being a fantastic celebration of our love, the wedding feels partly like a farewell party.

So in two years we have made it pretty far, from being packed up and ready to fly on our wedding day, to living across the other side of the world and travelling the vast continent that is North America, to being back in New Zealand and living in Queenstown with a baby on the way.

What has this little exercise in reminiscing taught me? My husband and I are both Aries, and although I'm not a huge subscriber to astrology, I believe there is a common element to our personalities that might be due to our shared star sign. We are restless when it comes to progress and often feel dissatisfied with our lot, no matter how pleasant it may seem from the outside. On the positive side, this means we make changes to our lives and hopefully progress them towards some kind of ideal. But it also means we are possibly too quick to move on when things are taking time to develop.

In terms of reaching our ideal lifestyle, I think we're getting there, and patience is perhaps something we will learn with parenthood. Happy anniversary us!